Flag raising goes virtual
With COVID-19 restrictions still in place, official Independence Day celebrations, including the flag raising ceremony, are going to be observed virtually.
“I know that we can’t come together to celebrate but nevertheless the Department of Culture is working towards bringing the celebrations to the public virtually,” Director of Culture Tamika Boatswain recently told the Department of Public Information.
A local film festival hosted on the state-run National Communications Network, Channel 11 and fora on “health, education and infrastructure, telecommunication, oil and gas and what we should look out for in the decades of development” are among the activities that the Department has executed so far.
The broadcast of features highlighting prominent sportsmen and women and other important figures in the Independence movement have also been a part of the Ministry’s list of activities leading up to the celebrations.
The much anticipated flag-raising ceremony will be hosted but in keeping with the National COVID19 Task Force’s guidelines, hence this year’s ceremony will be live-streamed, according to Minister of Social Cohesion Dr George Norton. “To watch the hoisting of the Golden Arrowhead is something we would want the entire Guyanese population to experience. Therefore, we have put systems in place to conduct recordings of this event and ensuring that it is distributed to the various regions,” Norton has stated.
Part of NCN’s independence programming